


Mind Over Matter

by Andromakhe



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: Angst, Arguing, Character Study, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Meditation, dreamscape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-22
Updated: 2015-05-22
Packaged: 2018-05-02 20:38:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5262701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andromakhe/pseuds/Andromakhe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set about a week after "The Deadly Venom." Karai wishes to learn to heal herself. Leo wishes to bring Karai home. Neither gets what they want. But perhaps they both get what they need. Inspired by "Arms" by Christina Perri.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Prickly Pair

**Author's Note:**

> I’m really upset about what happened in "The Deadly Venom." Feels like Karai’s character was destroyed. I don’t like her all that much right now and she’s one of my favorite characters. Since humans have a need to know why, and hoping that writing will ease my frustration or offer some consolation, I’ve written this follow-up. The fic is kind of influenced by chats with TheWinterMe and "Arms" by Christina Perri.

Karai stepped from behind a billboard, forcing Leo to stop midway across the roof he was jogging on. Donnie and Mikey moved to either side of him while Raph stood between Leo and Karai, but off to one side so they could still talk.

"So, Turtles. We meet again." Karai’s hands, which were currently snakes, hissed.

Leo grimaced as though tasting something unpleasant. "Yeah. Looks like it. What do you want?"

"Huh. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard that tone from you. Since you asked, I wanna know how you healed yourself. Father claims it can’t be done, but I know what I saw. He says even if it could be done, one with your level of training couldn’t do it. But when I asked him to show it to me, he said I probably couldn’t do it, either."

Leo scoffed. "I’m betting he can’t do it. He just doesn’t want to admit it to you. Would make him look weak and all."

"You’re calling Father weak?" Karai snarled.

"Well, let’s see. He went from claiming I wasn’t worth the energy to kill to personally attempting to finish me off. You did the same thing just last week. So maybe, possibly, I’m calling you both weak."

Karai lunged at him. Leo caught her by the wrists and twisted her arms behind her. Raph drew a sai, aiming the hilt at Karai’s temple. But as Raph swung, Leo punched Karai in the chest, making her topple onto her back as she was off balance trying to evade the weapon. Leo tried to pin her to the ground, but she punched him in the face and his hand came up to cup his cheek instinctively, allowing her to get to her feet again. Raph kicked her back down and she punched him in the stomach. When her hands turned into snakes again, Leo drew a sword and lay the flat side of the blade at one of her wrists. Karai froze. The sword moved about an inch and a half above her wrist, steady and ominous.

"If you wanted me to teach you that mantra, this really isn’t the way to go about it," Leo groused. "Thinking on it further, why should I help you, a Foot kunoichi? Since you’re the Shredder’s assassin, with no mind of your own, it would be like helping the Shredder himself. No go."

One hand moved to bite Leo, but in her fury, Karai forgot about the katana hovering over it and hissed in pain as her wrist was sliced open. Leo gasped in horror, sheathing his sword and pulling a bandage from around his arm. He wrapped it tightly around the wound as Karai began applying pressure to it. Karai jumped to her feet and attempted to run away, but Leo leapt at her and grabbed her by both shoulders, pushing her gently but firmly into a prone position on the roof. She tried to get up again but Leo squeezed her shoulders painfully. "No. You’ll make it worse. Here." Leo sat on the roof beside Karai, legs folded in front of him. He lay her injured arm across his thighs, noticing that the bleeding was slowing. "My brain’s screaming that teaching you the mantra is a really stupid move, but it just might save your life. I suppose Father would want you to know it. Our father." Leo nodded firmly.

Karai just made a scathing sound of disgust.

Ignoring her, Leo brushed his fingers against hers, noting they were still warm. Nodding, he closed his eyes and began preparing for meditation. "Watch and listen," Leo said softly. "The power to heal comes from within, from your spirit. The Shredder may scoff at such things, but our clan does not. Yes, ours, before you say anything. I don’t care what you think. You’re wrong, and one day, I’ll get you to see that." Leo didn’t see her scowl, but he did hear her spit on the ground in contempt. Shaking his head, he continued. "Once you’ve learned the hand gestures, you should meditate with me. It will help you be more attuned to your core." He began reciting the mantra quietly, repetitive sounds helping him to go deeper and deeper into himself. He found the energy within himself and curled his fingers gently around Karai’s injured wrist. She gasped as she felt the skin knit together, marveling at the heat that didn’t burn and watching as the light around Leo’s hands faded and was reabsorbed into his skin. Unwrapping her wrist carefully, she and the other Turtles noted it didn’t scar.

"Whoa," Mikey breathed, "I was out of it, so I never got to see it in action before. I wish I could learn that, but I’m no good at meditation."

"I could learn it, maybe," Raph put in. "But I don’t have the passion. It’s work."

Donnie was scowling, but he said nothing.

Karai stared at Donnie with an inquisitive tilt of her head, knowing talk of the spiritual healing angered him. But she decided learning the technique was more important than her curiosity and slipped into meditation, giving Leo the opening he was waiting for.


	2. Masks

Leo stood at the bottom of a plateau. Tall grass waved around him, and the place was dim. It was dusk here. Leo didn’t sense any wrongness to it. In fact, it felt natural and inviting, peaceful rather than foreboding. Looking up, he saw a cylindrical structure shaped like a cone, narrow at the top and widening close to the ground. It appeared to be smooth and metallic. Walking around the structure, he found a door that was circular and made of wood, like the hilt of a sword or knife. As he made his way through the rustling grass, he stepped on something that hissed and reared up, though the grass still hid it from view. Leo looked down briefly, but kept walking up the hill, though he did step more carefully. The grass began thinning out as he got closer to the structure and it was then that the creature he’d stepped on earlier wrapped itself around his ankle and hissed insistently. Stopping and looking down again, Leo saw it was a snake, a perfect miniature of Karai. He smiled and reached out to stroke the snake’s skin, and it reached up to meet his fingers. The snake relaxed under his caresses for several moments, savoring the contact, before it climbed onto Leo’s forearm and wound around it. 

"You’re cute," Leo crooned.

The tiny snake, about a foot long, squeezed his arm painfully, threatening him with her teeth.

Leo chuckled. "Ah, come on," he coaxed, "I’m not trying to be insulting. You’re alluring no matter what form you’re in." 

The snake stopped flicking her tongues a moment, then licked the back of Leo’s hand affectionately.

Leo laughed appreciatively and carried on to the door. The door had no lock or handle, so he pushed it, and it opened soundlessly, sliding to the side into one of the walls. Leo stepped through and the door reappeared when Leo looked over his shoulder. Leo noted that the snake around his arm was glowing to provide light. "What are you?" Leo asked the creature. "You look like Karai, but you’re clearly not a natural snake."

The snake gave no sign she heard him, but Leo understood that if nothing else, she was a friend.

The main feature of the room he was in was a spiral staircase made of wood, with twining snakes etched into the banisters so that they spiraled around them. The wood was white and smooth, and the steps were unadorned and broad. Leo began climbing, since there was really nothing else to do, and he saw that at various points, there were doors on the landings. Curious, he approached the first one and pushed on it, but it wouldn’t open. Shrugging, he began to move away, but the snake prodded the door with one of her hands and it opened just like the entry door, sliding sideways into the wall. A knife came flying at Leo, who jumped toward the stairs and grabbed at the railing.

"Stay out," snarled Karai, who was fully human, but younger than Leo remembered.

"Sure. No problem. I was going to carry on, but-"

With a ring of metal, Karai had drawn a short sword and attacked him. Leo grabbed a katana from its place over his shell and parried the sword, shaking his head in confusion.

"Who are you? How’d you even get in here? I’m the only one who belongs here," the child Karai snapped. She looked to be around thirteen or so, by Leo’s guess.

"I’m Leonardo. You know me, or you wouldn’t have let me in." He blocked another strike, this one less emphatic than the last.

"No. I don’t know you. I’d remember if I’d met a talking turtle." Karai sneered at him, trying to disarm Leo and getting jabbed in the forearm with his hilt for her trouble. She grabbed at her arm with her free hand and the snake around Leo’s arm snapped Karai’s blade between her teeth. Leo held his sword defensively and waited. Karai backed up, expression now uncertain. This turtle was clearly a ninja, and perhaps more skilled than herself. She looked at the snake, who hissed at her and glowed blindingly, raising her diminutive body as high as it would go. Karai looked at the snake in question. The snake nodded. The anger seemed to drain out of the young Karai, who looked at Leo. "She says she let you in. I have to let you pass. I don’t trust you, but I owe it to you to give you a chance. But if she’s defending you, you’re probably special. No one gets this treatment." With that, the child disappeared, and the door of the room she’d been occupying stayed open.

Pursing his lips thoughtfully, he nodded to the snake, who had returned to glowing gently again. "Thanks. I was thinking to knock her out, so I’m glad I didn’t have to do that."

The snake hissed, and somehow, Leo intuitively interpreted it as laughter. He smiled as he arrived at another door. "Should I open all of these?"

The snake nodded.

Leo pushed the door and it opened easily. It was clearly a bedroom. Human Karai, as he knew her, was lying on the bed on her side, facing away from the door. Leo began to back out, but the snake shook her head and he entered the room, stopping halfway between the door and the bed across the way. "Karai?" he asked uncertainly.

"Go away," she answered petulantly, not looking at him.

"Something wrong?" Leo asked.

"It’s not like you care, anyway. Not that I blame you." The last sentence was muttered, but still audible.

"Why would I be asking if I didn’t care?" Leo grumbled, slightly annoyed.

Karai turned over and met his blue gaze. "Look, it doesn’t matter. I poisoned Father, tried to kill you, captured our brothers, created a dangerous monster, and then there was the recent incident with the venom. There’s more, too. I’m sure of it. Oh yeah. O’Neil and Jones probably hate me. You’re obligated to do the same."

"I guess so. And I’ve tried. But I’ve never been able to manage it for some reason. Just goes to show - the heart isn’t governed by the brain."

Karai looked hopeful, but then her expression was downcast again. "But aren’t you mad at me?"

"Sure. I’d be mad at anyone who tried to kill me or needlessly endangered my friends and family. But why are we talking about this?"

Karai looked down at her sheets. "You asked what was wrong. I have no future with the Hamato clan after what I’ve done."

"You’d be amazed what an apology can do," Leo said quietly.

"What’s the point? There’s no such thing as forgiveness."

Leo blinked. "Who taught you that? My brothers and I would have abandoned each other long ago without the ability to apologize. It’s a skill worth learning, Karai." Leo nodded solemnly.

Karai sat up and looked into Leo’s face again. "I’ll think about it." So saying, she vanished just like the warrior Karai.

Carrying on, Leo made it to a third door. He was almost at the top of the structure, at which there was a final door. Pushing it open, he saw Karai in her humanoid serpent form, going through familiar katas with a tanto. He stepped inside this replica of the Hamato dojo and watched for a bit, before drawing a sword and joining her in perfect synchronization. Her eyes widened in surprise, but she smiled at him and sped up, Leo copying her and beginning to move his sword so that it complemented and harmonized with hers. The snake around Leo’s arm hissed quietly, imbuing Leo’s sword with a blue glow. Karai grinned, making her sword glow red. As their feet moved, the colored ribbons of light wound together and apart and back together in a cyclical pattern. Leo considered that the combined energies felt balanced, as though both of them had been waiting for the other to strengthen, to challenge, to support each other. Faster and faster they moved, until the swords blurred together and neither could be distinguished individually. After a few seconds of this impossible speed, Leo raised his eyebrows at Karai in Question, and she nodded and held up a hand to signal stopping. Leo tightened his grip on his spinning hilt and aimed the tip of the blade at the floor, Karai doing the same. Simultaneously sheathing their weapons, they turned to each other and bowed formally before Karai opened her arms for an embrace and Leo held her close. She brushed his lips with her own and Leo swore he felt her forked tongue on his before she melted away like the other versions of her he’d already encountered.

Sighing in disappointment, he made his way to the final door, stopping outside to compose himself. How he wished that kiss were real. To his mild surprise, though, the door opened by itself, and Karai’s formless light was visible in the room beyond. The room was featureless. It reminded Leo more of a prison cell or dungeon. There was a window near the ceiling, which was closed, so the only light came from the snake he wore and Karai’s own energy.

"Leo. I’m so glad you could make it. No one’s ever gotten this far, you know. I wouldn’t let them."

"You made it some work for me, too, Karai," Leo retorted, part amused and part exasperated.

"I know, but would you really have wanted it any other way? You can’t tell me you wouldn’t have put up at least some token resistance if you were me."

"I can imagine interrogating you and engaging you in an exhibition match for sure," Leo smiled. "The teamwork test was a nice touch."

"I’ve wondered what that’d be like - to actually train together. You’re impressive."

"You’re sexy," Leo replied.

"Is that all?" Karai winked.

"And sassy, skilled, and smart. Strategic, serpentine…" He blushed. "Um…Maybe not that last one…"

Karai laughed merrily. "It’s fine. Why should I be upset when you’re telling the truth?

"Listen, you’re here about that worm, aren’t you?"

Leo nodded. "You know about it?"

"Yeah. But I can’t seem to communicate with my physical self. As you can see, I’m detached from it. Of course, I’m still anchored to my body, but I can’t influence my brain the way I should. I can see what I’m doing but can’t stop myself. You get what I’m saying?"

"I think so." Leo nodded slowly. "Are you saying the worm has actually cut off normal interfacing between your body and your mind? And that’s why I see pure energy when you should actually have a shape, like me?"

"You’re smart," Karai praised.

"I have my moments," Leo winked. "Spirituality has always been a strong point. But I guess I can’t teach you the 'healing hands' mantra. It requires…well…you to function. It requires that the physical self can tap into the energy within and transfer it to injuries."

"I understand. But don’t be surprised if my physical self doesn’t and gets mad at you. I don’t know how to get rid of the worm, but promise you won’t give up on me." Karai’s tone was pleading. "No matter what it looks like, I still know you, our brothers, our father." After a moment’s thought, she added, "Don’t let me kill you guys."

"I’ll do my best," Leo said solemnly. "And don’t worry. I knew you were in here somewhere. We’ll free you somehow. Don’t give up on us. On me."

"It’s a deal." 

The snake around Leo’s arm became transparent and faded out of existence with a slow caress of scales. As it dissolved and merged with Karai’s energy, he realized it was an illusion: a solid manifestation, a vessel to contain a little of herself and aid him. His sorrow must have shown, since Karai radiated sympathy. "I can create her again the next time we meet on the spirit plane. But you have to go. I’ll keep unfriendly spirits away. You’ll work to reopen communications. All I can say is the parasite seems to hate when the brain gets agitated, so shake mine up a bit. Do something…surprising. Try a kiss. Though not right now, when you’re likely to die for it. You’ll know when."

"Thanks, Karai. I’ll keep your suggestion in mind. Sayonara."

Karai replied in kind as Leo jumped to the closed window and simply went through it, opening his eyes with even more resolve. Convincing Karai’s physical self of his sincerity was going to be difficult, but he did do it once. When he had her trust (again), he was confident he or the Shredder would enable her material and spiritual selves to merge again. Taking Karai’s limp hand in his, he looked at her peaceful face before setting her appendage gently on the ground, getting to his feet, and silently leaping away toward home. His brothers followed suit, for once not needing to be told to stay quiet.


End file.
